Jesus Dies. Judas has Risen!
The wife and I are big fans of Jesus Christ Superstar. She from her days as a child when her dad ran a Movie theater in Uniontown, PA where she grew up. She got to watch the movie many times during it's theatrical release in the early seventies. The movie theater was basically her day care center in the summer. She was only 6 or 7 at the time. When we started dating she forced me to watch the movie on video. After a few viewings, I got into it as well. Mind you, neither of us are religious so the appreciation for it is purely musical in nature.
Over the years we have been to many variations of the stage production, from the full on world tours featuring the main performers from the movie, Ted Neely as Jesus and Carl Anderson as Judas, to a small production done by high schoolers. Basically anytime a production is happening in town we go. Last time through it was the tour with Sebastian Bach as Jesus and we were sadly disappointed. He is no Jesus. Once we saw Dennis DeYoung play the role of Pilate. Love or hate Styx, he was outstanding as the Roman politico. A few years ago Carl Anderson died, so the hope of seeing a dynamic Judas has always been there, but they usually fall a bit short of the tremendous job done by Carl.
Last night we attending the "Jesus Farewell Tour" production passing through town. I've had the tickets for months since the show was announced. This is Ted Neely's final tour as Jesus. Honestly, it is about time. The guy is 63. His voice is showing his age on the tempered vocals. He has to force the falsetto a bit to get it to come through and some of the high notes he will hold the previous note and carry it up into the higher range for the next. However, for the big Jesus solo in Gethsemane, he saved it up and managed to hit the big "WWWWHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY..... Why should I die?". This pleased the wife as it pains her so to see the show mis-sung. She usually has to restrain herself from jumping on stage to sing it herself. Two things would probably make her life complete - 1) singing backup for Barry Manilow, or 2) getting to sing Superstar on stage. She's generally 180 degrees away from me on music as the Barry thing points out, but I digress, back to the show. The best part of the night was the role of Judas. This was portrayed by former lead singer of Living Color, Corey Glover. Yes the man who sang "Cult of Personality". Somewhat ironic isn't it? Corey totally lived up to the role and sang it as no one since Carl has done. Judas has Risen! A great performance from him. To top it all off, our seats which we thought were 4th row since they were row D, were actually 2nd row. So it was just 1 row in front of us, the orchestra pit, and Jesus on stage. Being that close you could tell that Jesus is a bit thin up top and it looked like some serious gluing of hair and/or extensions on his dome. It probably wasn't the best staging or costuming we've seen for a production, but still an overall great night of entertainment.
Over the years we have been to many variations of the stage production, from the full on world tours featuring the main performers from the movie, Ted Neely as Jesus and Carl Anderson as Judas, to a small production done by high schoolers. Basically anytime a production is happening in town we go. Last time through it was the tour with Sebastian Bach as Jesus and we were sadly disappointed. He is no Jesus. Once we saw Dennis DeYoung play the role of Pilate. Love or hate Styx, he was outstanding as the Roman politico. A few years ago Carl Anderson died, so the hope of seeing a dynamic Judas has always been there, but they usually fall a bit short of the tremendous job done by Carl.
Last night we attending the "Jesus Farewell Tour" production passing through town. I've had the tickets for months since the show was announced. This is Ted Neely's final tour as Jesus. Honestly, it is about time. The guy is 63. His voice is showing his age on the tempered vocals. He has to force the falsetto a bit to get it to come through and some of the high notes he will hold the previous note and carry it up into the higher range for the next. However, for the big Jesus solo in Gethsemane, he saved it up and managed to hit the big "WWWWHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY..... Why should I die?". This pleased the wife as it pains her so to see the show mis-sung. She usually has to restrain herself from jumping on stage to sing it herself. Two things would probably make her life complete - 1) singing backup for Barry Manilow, or 2) getting to sing Superstar on stage. She's generally 180 degrees away from me on music as the Barry thing points out, but I digress, back to the show. The best part of the night was the role of Judas. This was portrayed by former lead singer of Living Color, Corey Glover. Yes the man who sang "Cult of Personality". Somewhat ironic isn't it? Corey totally lived up to the role and sang it as no one since Carl has done. Judas has Risen! A great performance from him. To top it all off, our seats which we thought were 4th row since they were row D, were actually 2nd row. So it was just 1 row in front of us, the orchestra pit, and Jesus on stage. Being that close you could tell that Jesus is a bit thin up top and it looked like some serious gluing of hair and/or extensions on his dome. It probably wasn't the best staging or costuming we've seen for a production, but still an overall great night of entertainment.